Blockchain Technology & Digital Assets

Blockchain Technology & Digital Assets

Distributed ledger technologies, including blockchain, are transforming industries and revolutionizing the ways companies and governments operate. From shipping to banking, logistics management to digital advertising, the legal profession to insurance, and the entertainment industry to the Internet of Things (IoT), decentralized applications and smart contracts built on blockchain platforms are becoming more widely adopted across a range of use cases for businesses, governments, individuals, and even IoT devices. The successful creation and deployment of these technologies requires effective collaboration between clients and their attorneys.

Lowenstein is among the first in the nation to establish a Blockchain Technology & Digital Assets Group to address this rapidly emerging and quickly evolving field. Our group includes more than 30 attorneys across the country from Silicon Valley to New York. The team spans multiple legal disciplines, including capital markets, intellectual property, privacy, cybersecurity, tax, tech, venture capital, and insurance. Our multi-disciplinary, cross-functional teams enable us to carefully anticipate and evaluate the technical, legal, business, and regulatory issues facing our clients today and tomorrow.

Over the years, we have advised clients in a variety of industries with a broad array of legal issues, including:

Drafting and negotiating commercial contracts for a cryptocurrency exchange-as-a-service, which has white labeled its blockchain technology platform for numerous clients across five continents;

Counseling clients on their initial coin offerings (ICOs) and addressing the panoply of existing and anticipated laws, regulations, enforcement actions, and technical developments;

Assisting clients on tax issues related to cryptocurrency trading; and

Participating in working groups to increase the utilization of blockchain technologies to enhance the digital advertising ecosystem and radically transform and improve the contracting, acquisition, and logistics systems within the Department of Defense.

PRESS MENTIONS

Ethan L. Silver was featured in both American Bankerand Interactive Investor, commenting on the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) reticence to approve new cryptocurrency, despite encouraging more discussion. Silver states that: “the practical realities are that there has been a lot of meetings and discussions that have yielded little progress." He agrees with SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce that the Howey Test – used by US regulators to determine what should be considered a security – is “overly broad.” Silver asserts that until the SEC provides clarity on how digital assets should be custodied under its existing rules, a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) will never be approved.

Ethan L. Silver is quoted in CoinDesk,CoinWire, Invest in Blockchain, and XBT.netregarding the U.S. government shutdown’s effect on cryptocurrency progress on Wall Street. Silver anticipates that, should the shutdown continue, any remaining staffers would most likely reject the rule change proposal for the highly anticipated exchange-traded fund, in lieu of allowing it to be approved on a technicality.

Ethan L. Silveris quoted in InvestmentNewsaddressing cryptocurrency market manipulation and custody as it relates to the possibility of a crypto-ETF entering the market in 2019. Silver states that the challenge for the SEC is how to integrate this new technology into the existing SEC rules.

Matt Savare is quoted in Bloomberg BNAin an article discussing how online advertisers are utilizing blockchain to fight fraud. Savare, who is noted as a member of the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s blockchain working group, recommends the tactic and comments that blockchain “dramatically reduces the incidence of fraud.”